Makers of hemp-laced foods fight federal drug agency

Published 4:00 am, Tuesday, January 15, 2002

These products, now beginning to appear on store shelves, contain what is being promoted as the latest nutritional wonder, rich in protein, vitamin E and two essential fatty acids.

Federal drug officials have a radically different view of the hemp seeds and hemp oil that are being added to ice cream, candy, salad oil, waffles and beer. To the Drug Enforcement Administration, hemp and marijuana come from the same plant, so one is as illegal as the other.

Food manufacturers say their products contain little, if any, of the hallucinogen found in marijuana, and certainly no more than the amount of opiate found in a poppy-seed bagel.

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Nonetheless, the DEA has ordered any food containing hemp off store shelves by early next month. Soaps, cosmetics and clothes made with hemp may still be sold unless and until there is evidence that the body can absorb the hemp in such products.

The DEA's order, issued Oct. 9, is the latest twist in a continuing battle between drug-control advocates and a growing number of farmers, entrepreneurs and drug-reform advocates such as "Cheers" actor Woody Harrelson who want to legalize industrial hemp.

The amount of food products containing hemp is small, accounting for only about $5 million in sales annually, with most products sold in health-food stores.

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Hemp-food-makers note that soy foods, considered a fringe food for health enthusiasts only a few years ago, have become mainstream, sold in widely different forms such as soy milk and tofu turkey. In 2001, sales of soy food products totaled more than $3.3 billion, according to the Maine consulting firm Soyatech.

It's no wonder, then, that the hemp industry is fighting the DEA order, which takes effect Feb. 6.

Meanwhile, Kenex Ltd. of Canada, the largest exporter of hemp seed to the United States -- it is illegal to grow industrial hemp in most of this country -- intends, under the North America Free Trade Agreement, to seek compensation of at least $20 million as a result of the DEA's action.

"The level of THC" -- tetrahydrocannabinol, the hallucinogenic substance found in marijuana -- "in hemp seeds is minuscule," said John Roulac, founder and president of Nutiva, whose Sebastopol company sells hemp bars, chips and shelled hemp seeds.

Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, said the DEA's decision "is the kind of thing that undermines the credibility of the so-called war on drugs. There is no basis for the complete prohibition. The amount of THC in these food products is so infinitesimally small -- are addicts going to carry around barrels of pretzels? . . . This is from the same administration that says it's OK to have more arsenic in water than it is to have hemp in cereal."

DEA officials say the issue is simple: The ban is required by law. "Many Americans do not know that hemp and marijuana are both parts of the same plant and that hemp cannot be produced without producing marijuana," DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said in a statement.

Under the 1970 Controlled Substances Act, the DEA said, it has no choice but to ban food with hemp seed.

In that law, Congress "expressly stated . . . that any material, compound, mixture, or preparation which contains any quantity of THC is a . . . controlled substance" that is illegal, according to the Federal Register notice announcing the ban.

DEA spokesman Will Glaspy said that although poppy seeds may contain trace amounts of opiates, they are allowed in food because Congress specifically exempted them from substance-abuse laws.

At issue in the dispute over hemp foods is the difference between marijuana and industrial hemp. According to the DEA, "hemp and marijuana are actually separate parts of the species of plant known as the cannabis.

"The marijuana portions of the cannabis plant include the flowering tops (buds), the leaves and the resin of the cannabis plant. The remainder of the plant -- stalks and sterilized seeds -- is what some people refer to as hemp."

Industrial hemp, however, generally has less than 1 percent THC, while marijuana plants can have as much as 30 percent.

"The difference between the two plants is like the difference between field corn and sweet corn: It's the same species but different varieties," said David Bronner, chairman of the Hemp Industries Association's food and oil committee.

During the past few years, hemp products have become increasingly popular, with annual sales now about $25 million, mostly for clothing and body products such as soap and cosmetics.